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Form 6781 - Section 1256 Contracts and Straddles - Futures Contracts

For futures contracts, the entry of Forms 1099-B information is on IRS Form 6781 Gains and Losses From Section 1256 Contracts and Straddles. Part I Section 1256 Contracts Marked to Market needs to be completed for futures contracts.

To enter information for Form 6781 in your TaxACT return:

From within your TaxACT return (Online or Desktop) click on the Federal Q&A tab

Click Investment Income to expand the section and then click Gain or Loss on the Sale of Investments

Click Futures or foreign currency contract reporting (Form 6781)

The program will proceed with the interview questions for you to enter or review the appropriate information

Based on the information entered, the appropriate calculations will be done on Form 6781 so that 40% of the gain or loss is reported as short-term on Line 8 and 60% of the gain or loss is reported as long-term on Line 9 of the form.

Short-term gains and losses are then transferred by the program to Line 4 of Schedule D, and long-term gains and losses to Line 11.

This type of transaction will not be imported via electronic import or CSV file import. The information must be manually entered by the user.